A Perfect Storm

This week was not my finest. Traveling husband, teething baby, 3 year old who is being so very VERY 3, sleep deprivation, bad weather causing flight drama. It all came together to create the perfect storm of yuck. I feel like I try to be the person who finds the good stuff amid the crap. I don't like to be a grump. I especially don't like the type of parent I am when I'm a grump. This week I failed on the rising above. I let the cold and the tired and the frustrated take up residence in my house. It was a very long week.

Thankfully, *another* winter storm only slightly delayed the return of our missing husband and daddy. Now we are all back together. It is still cold. The baby is still teething. The three year old is still talking non stop and testing everyone and everything. I'm still dreaming of moving somewhere warmer. But, things feel better. A sweet neighbor cleared the driveway for us last night and sent me a text message to "enjoy relaxing with your family." I almost cried.

So very thankful to have my family back together and for the people who put up with me in the interim.

What I hope they remember

I hope, when my boys are grown and have their own families, they remember this. I hope they remember Mama making holidays (even the hallmark ones) special. I hope they remember bananas sliced into hearts, glittery paper plates, and placemats you can color on while you're eating. I hope they remember the surprise of balloons on their chairs and silly decorations that sprung up when they weren't looking. I hope they remember feeling special and loved, and I hope those memories make them want to create new ones with their own kids.

I hope they remember this stuff, and not what a crappy housekeeper I am. I hope the fun memories overshadow the moments when I am overtired and crabby and really just want to drink my coffee before I make waffles. I hope they remember their mama is only human. And that she really really loves them.

Ventage Tuesday: LYL

LYL: that's yearbook speak for Love You Lots. Truth: I love yearbook speak. LYL. KIT. Oh, and my personal favorite: Don't ever change. Good grief I'm glad I didn't take that little bit of yearbook wisdom. Can you imagine?

Anyway, this week the Ventage girls are giving some love to the little things in our life. It is, after all, the season of love. Obviously, I love my family and my friends, and especially the friends who have made themselves family. But there are also some people in my life who probably have no idea how much I love them.

So today I'm sharing a little love for...

1. Janna: Thank you for being my favorite barista at Starbucks. I love your peppy voice. I love the touch of snark. I love the way you swiftly deliver my drink and return my card so I don't have to keep the window open a moment longer than necessary. 
2. Canadian National Railways: Thank you for routing a train through my neighborhood just about every day during my morning drive. I've decided to no longer see this as a delay and embrace how very very happy it makes the little dude to see your train and speculate where it might be going. 
3. Ty: Thank you for being in AJ's class this year. I may not be your mama, but I have seen the progress you have made since September and I am so excited for you. Thanks for making eye contact sometimes, buddy. It makes my morning on the days you look at me and wave at Baby Sammy. 
4. The Honest Toddler: Thank you, HT fo, r making me laugh till I pee about things I probably shouldn't laugh about. You have...a way with words. And if I must walk through this life in a sleep deprived haze and smelling a little like spit up and bananas, I deserve to laugh. And in case anyone hasn't met the honest toddler yet, I suggest you start with the nap window "The Nap Window is made of oppression and forged in the flaming hot tears of toddlers around the globe." Good stuff. Good, good stuff. 
5. Words with Friends creator: Yes, I know you stole Scrabble and made an app. Your idea was not original. But when the baby is up for the 5th time at 3am and I need something, ANYTHING to focus on so that I don't fall asleep and smother said child, your little app saves the day. Thank you for teaching me that QI is actually a word. Now can you please stop giving me hand after hand of NO VOWELS?!?

Be sure to check in with the other lovely ladies for more unexpected love letters. 

Hello, Monday

Hello, COLD. The high for the next two days is a single digit and the low is a double digit number with a minus in front of it. And that's before you factor in the wind chill. The southern girl in me is not happy. This is the part of winter I just don't enjoy. Maybe I'd feel differently if I didn't have to go anywhere, but today is a two school day for AJ which means hauling the boys in and out of the car multiple times. Bundle up, we will.

Hello, smoothie love. The addition of a new gadget in my life has revolutionized my breakfast. Last week I picked up the Oster Personal Blender and it is amazing. It's a tiny little thing with plenty of power and it's easy to clean. I've been happily throwing frozen fruits and veggies and greek yogurt into my new little friend daily.

Hello, packing. We're less than a week from our Florida adventure. That means we have entered the time where I just want to get there and I am completely overwhelmed with the idea of packing for our family of four. I'm obsessively watching the 10 day forecast and stressing more than a little about how I'm going to make sure we have clothes for the days where it's going to be 60 as well as the days when it's going to be 80.

Hello, mobile Sam. The small one is army crawling like it's his job, and in the process doing a fantastic job of illustrating the spots the vacuum misses. Why must every.single.thing. go in your mouth young man? I'm getting very good at the hook motion to remove all sorts of unsavory things from his mouth. Good for the immune system, right? Shudder.

Hello, social AJ. For the first time ever this weekend, a despondent little dude walked over to me and said, "Mama, I lonely. I want a friend to come to my house and play with me." And so it begins. "Mama and Daddy days" are no longer good enough. And so, we had our first AJ requested play date on Sunday (as opposed to all of the play dates previously organized by mamas) with our neighbor Jackson. The boys ran around like crazy shrieking and giggling and intentionally smacking their heads. I was mildly terrified and Sam was more than a little thrilled to watch the madness from his post in the jumper.

Hello, Seafoam. My 2013 project life kit is here. And I'm 3 weeks behind. Oh well, I'll get there. And now that I know that I enjoy the monthly format just as much as the weekly, I'm not finding myself quite so overwhelmed about the idea of "catching up." Life will get documented, one way or another.

Hello, Monday is a post inspired by Katrina, who was inspired by Lisa.

Right Now

He

• has discovered the joy of the photo bomb. Doesn't want to pose for real pictures, but will throw himself in front of the camera whenever he wants to be goofy
• is sleeping most mornings until 6am thanks to his new alarm clock, at which point he bounds into our room with "The boy is awake! The boy is awake! It's time for breakfixt" 
• makes my morning every day when he walks over to Sammy's crib and says "Good morning Baby Sammy! How's your nap going?" 
• has made so much speech progress that he's about to get booted from his early childhood program. So proud of him. 
• is having a tough time missing his mama lately. It's resulted in some pretty heartbreaking goodbyes when Mama has to go to work. 

He

• is army crawling like it's his job.
• is babbling up a storm. Lots of ba ba ba and my personal favorite: a high pitched squeal that sounds just like he's saying "AJ" Appropriate since big brother is pretty much his favorite person in the world
• is turning into a little foodie. His mama is working on getting out of "allergy mama" mode and allowing him a little freedom to snack on the things we're eating. So far he really enjoys penne, and green beans. 
• has one tooth that's breaking through the skin, and one more that shouldn't be far behind. 
• is not the best sleeper in the world. On the good nights he'll give us a 6 hour stretch. On the bad nights, a 6 hour stretch sounds like heaven.

He

• is returning to an old hobby. 
• is working from home 2 days a week again after several months in the office every day.
• is very excited that the NHL lockout is over.
• hasn't traveled for work since before Thanksgiving. That's a really long stretch for us!
• is looking forward to all the food Disney World has to offer.

She

• is playing with make up after a few years hiatus with help and advice from a very patient friend.
• working on being flexible. Both in body (thanks to a physical therapist) and in mind (thanks to a 3.5 year old who challenges my ideas on just about everything)
• is hungry. Constantly. It's winter. I'm cold and bored and hungry. 
• dreams of going to bed when tired and waking up rested. Not sure if this will ever happen again, but it's such a pleasant thought. 
• looking forward to an upcoming vacation. Not so much looking forward to the packing and the travel.

OLTW 2013: Plan

Plan: a detailed scheme, method, etc, for attaining an objective

I've always been a planner. It's part of my control freak nature. It served we well as a television news producer. On any given day breaking news could change my plan ten times, and I rarely went to air at 5pm with the show I had planned at 9am, but there was always a plan. 

Now, I'm a mom of two boys. And a wife. And an employee. And on any given day I feel like I am spinning my wheels and being pulled into fifty million different directions. The plan is even more important now. But it's so easy to just let the day to day engulf me and feel like making a plan is pointless. Sleep deprivation makes me just want to survive the day. But even that requires a plan.

This morning was a prime example of what happens when there isn't a plan. One late appointment snowballed into a chaotic morning. The little dude went to school in two different shoes. Both right feet. He looked like a hot mess. And I felt like a mess as I tried to explain our cluster of a morning to his teacher. I tried to tell myself she's heard it all before, but that doesn't make it any easier when it's happening to you.

So, it's time to get back to basics as Casa de Homburg. I don't want our objective to be survival. I want to enjoy 2013. And that, my friends, is going to take a plan.   

Ventage Tuesday: All I Read are Bedtime Stories

Confession: I feel like a great big giant fraud writing this post. Maybe even worse than when I wrote that fashion post. Remember that? Ha! Though, I am wearing makeup today, jeans that fit, and cute shoes. So perhaps all was not lost.

But today I'm supposed to write about books I want to read. Books. Like, for myself. Books that don't have pictures. Books with pages made of real paper and not laminated cardboard. Books that don't rhyme. I used to read quite a bit. I remember going to the used book store once a month with two grocery bags full of paperbacks I had devoured. I'd trade those in for a credit and then spend an hour searching the shelves for stuff I hadn't read yet. I'm not sure where that part of me went, but she left sometime in high school or college I think, when required reading took up any spare time I might have had for recreational reading. Then, when I moved on to the real world, my recreational reading was done on the internet. Blogs and internet forums, and all the research a girl could want. I've read a few books for myself in the past few years, but mainly on vacation, when flights and layovers made me a captive audience. Now, my vacations involve little people and there's no reading then anymore either.

Anyway, all of that is to say I feel silly making this list of books I want to read and knowing full well that I probably won't get through them. I could find time to read, but it's just not that high on my priority list. Because if we're being honest, I'd rather sleep. But if I *were* to find/make time to read, here are the first five books I would want to crack open:

1.Carry On, Warrior: Thoughts on Life Unarmed: I have been reading Glennon's blog for over a year now and love her honest storytelling. The community that has grown out of her writings has done some pretty remarkable things. I'm so excited about this book that I might actually try to read it. For real.

2. Bloom: Finding Beauty in the Unexpected: Kelle is another blogger I have followed for a long time. Her photography is as beautiful as her writing,

3. Kisses From Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption: Are you seeing the blogger turned author trend? I haven't followed Katie as closely as some other bloggers, but I am so very amazed by her story. Moving to a country alone and adopting a whole houseful of orphans? Pretty remarkable.

4. One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are: Not a blogger! Or well, I don't think she is. But this book has been recommended by many MANY bloggers.

5. 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess:  this one was recommended to me by Amazon. Amazon thinks I need to simplify? Or maybe Amazon thinks I only need to read books with colons and subtitles.

Be sure to check in with the other Ventage girls to see what they're wanting to read this year. I bet they're all planning to actually read those books too. Me? Well, I've got a date with Llama Llama and Moo Baa La La La.